'We’re serious about delivering' - FF reveal Election 2020 housing policy
Even if Sinn Fein gets 40 TDs elected to the next Dáil it won’t be getting into Government which renders its housing policy moot, according to Fianna Fáil's housing spokesman Darragh O'Brien.
His party has said it will concentrate on empowering the local authorities to build houses as the main thrust of its plan to combat the homelessness crisis, while co-living developments would be banned.
At the launch of his party’s housing policy in Dublin, Mr O’Brien said that enabling homeownership would be key to Fianna Fail’s €2.1 billion package.
Regarding Sinn Féin’s plans to initiate the “largest ever campaign of public housing construction” as part of its own policy, Mr O’Brien said “we have a Sinn Féin party running approximately 40 candidates - if all of them were elected they still wouldn’t be in Government”.
“(Sinn Féin housing spokesman) Eoin O Broin has the luxury, and he knows himself, to really say what he wants without having the responsibility to deliver,” Mr O’Brien said. “We’re serious about delivering.”
He outlined his “fully costed” plan for housing designed to concentrate on maximising home-ownership. The marquee side of that policy will be a 33% SSIA-style savings scheme for first time buyers capped at €10,000, a facet that had been well-flagged in advance, in order to enable people to save a deposit for a house.
Mr O’Brien said that policy would be stretched over a consistent period of time to a maximum of five years. “I believe it will be of real benefit to those who want to own their own home,” he said.
“We will retain and expand the Help to Buy scheme, and we will build 50,000 affordable homes for purchase at a price of below €250,000.”
He said 50,000 new social housing properties will be built over five years, a figure shy of the 60,000 planned by both Fine Gael and Sinn Féin.
In terms of his party’s concentration on the local authorities, Mr O’Brien said Fianna Fáil will “slash red tape” by raising those councils’ spending caps for housing development to €6 million, a policy he said had been agreed with Fine Gael over the past two budgets only to be “reneged upon” by the governing party.
In terms of land hoarding, his plan is to double the vacant site levy to 14%, while a €600 rent tax credit for all private renters and a lifetime deposit scheme, which would follow the tenant, would be introduced. Homeless funding, meanwhile, would be increased to €250 million per annum - a roughly €80 million increase on current levels.
“What people want is action on housing,” Mr O’Brien said, adding that the Government has consistently missed its targets on homelessness.
